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In case you can’t read that text, it says, “Women initiate most domestic violence, yet out of a thousand cases of domestic violence, maybe one is involving a man. And this has made a victim culture out of women.” That’s right, the world’s premier sexual harasser has, like, some really serious opinions about social issues.

First of all, that statement doesn’t even make any sense. Is he saying that 999 of a thousand domestic violence charges are brought by women against women? If not, then more than one in a thousand cases “is involving a man.” How does “this” (whatever “this” is referring to) create a victim culture “out of” women. Wouldn’t it be a victim culture among women (if it weren’t total bullshit)? I’m pretty sure I’m not taking advice on serious social matters from a guy who can’t even form a coherent thought and doesn’t know that a Salvador Dali moustache isn’t attractive.

Horrible diction aside, there are some problems with Dov’s claims. How does he know that “women initiate most domestic violence”? Has there been a study I’m not aware of? Or is Dov just speaking from personal experience, letting us know that any time he’s been involved in violence against women, it’s been for a real good reason? And speaking of that, what, exactly, qualifies as “initiating” domestic violence? Striking first? Or simply being to mouthy? That kind of wording reeks of MRA reasoning, in which men can be excused for physically abusing partners who “push them to it” with their nagging. Dov, apparently, has forgotten that there is no excuse to hit another person, whether you are male or female, and that the idea of one partner “initiating” domestic violence is therefore a joke. “Initiation” does not require retaliation.

He’s also brought out another MRA favorite, bemoaning the “culture of victimization” among women. MRAs love to claim that feminism, for rightly pointing out and resisting the abuses men commit against women, has turned otherwise “good women” into whiners. Nothing illustrates their unexamined sense of entitlement more than MRAs’ claims that women ought to be happy with what they’ve got and quit complaining. It’s often these types that will remind women how “lucky” we are that men have granted us the rights and privileges that we have now and that we ought to have a look at Afghanistan before we do any more complaining. Dov Charney, by making the absurd claim that a culture of victimization has arisen among women because they perceive domestic violence to be a problem, is proudly joining his MRA brothers in telling women we’ve gotten all we’re going to get, we have nothing to complain about, and we ought to shut the fuck up and get back to celebrating our “right” to huff dong for cash.

I mean, look at the woman in the ad. I suppose Charney thought if he had a woman lying next to him, it’d prove just how right he is about what weenies us feminists are. The message: now here’s a real liberated woman, one who doesn’t go around complaining about domestic violence. She doesn’t invite domestic violence on herself because she’s docile and agreeable. She sees just how awesome it is to be a woman, what a sweet deal it is for her and for womankind that guys like me exist that will pay her to lay in a bed with me with almost no clothes on in support of my “women are unhappy because they won’t stay in their place, not because men abuse them” message.

Honestly, that woman looks drugged to me.

Here’s the last thing that struck me about this ad: what the fuck are we selling here? Stupid MRA libertarianism or ugly hipster clothing? This asshole, the CEO of the company, has come out of his gang bang emporium of an office to appear in one of his company’s ads and make a social and political statement, and this is what he chooses to say? This is the biggest social issue weighing on this guy’s mind? He’s so concerned with this MRA bullshit that it’s more important to him than selling us metallic leggings? Unbelievable. Whatever you may have thought of him before, there’s no longer any denying where this guy’s mind is at.

Please, I beg of you, don’t buy this guy’s clothes. If you won’t boycott American Apparel for the sake of shutting a bullshit hipster company down out of respect for aesthetics and genuine counterculturalism, then do it because he thinks women have no reason to feel put upon in a society in which people like him use their bodies as decorations, as means to sell products, and as fuck toys.

** UPDATE: It turns out this ad is a phony. But who cares? It’s a real quote from Charney, which proves that he is in fact an MRA, and it’s superimposed on a real AA ad. I do, however, want to offer a serious reward to the person who find the creator of this ad for me. S/he’s a fucking genius.

30 Responses to “Dov Charney is an MRA. Pardon me if I don’t faint with surprise.”

On the whole clothes note–if you really want to be counterculture you can just stop buying new clothes. There are enough eFFing clothes in circulation to fit all our different sizes and accommodate a few different occasions (really, how necessary is a big wardrobe?).

If you must have a constant influx of different attire at least use recycled, upcycled or legit handmade items (like by you or a friend). Or just stop buying new shit.

I imagine women initiate most domestic violence the same way we cause most automobile accidents.

It starts (and ends) in the minds of abusers like Charney.

How can you fight this? Not by analyzing what he’s said or asking if there’s been a study. Of course there has been, but Charney isn’t concerned with facts, he’s using the same tactics to garner sympathy for sexual abusers and pedophiles as Obama did in his political campaign. See. Framing the cunt at The New Agenda.

There is no way to reason with the mentally deranged: use the public sidewalks in front of his shops and picket, and leaflet. See if there’s a women’s branch of a union in your community who will back you. Keep coming back. Make himn take legal action to stop you. Yea! More free publicity for you.

This is a Canadian women’s union member newsletter. They must have U.S. sisters. I think it’d be worth it to find out:

I came home and I kept thinking about this quote, which is pretty lame since I just manifesta-ed I wouldn’t. but it occured to me that I can probably shed some great light on the exact meaning of this Mr. Charney’s quote, because my ex informed me of what i did that made me at fault for him hitting me. you gals sure are lucky I’m here, because otherwise we’d never understand this ad: if we avoid doing the following things, we’ll be sure not to ‘initiate’ getting our asses beat;

-talking
-having an opinion
-making choices that men don’t like
-looking at or talking to men
-having a sex drive

One might hope that he doesn’t believe that, it’s just a way to get the MRAs to buy his products, but I’m not sure if that isn’t worse.

I also have to feel a little bit sorry for actual advocates of men’s rights (as opposed to the chest beating, all caps version looking for a feminist conspiracy to destroy) when I see something like that. Amongst their goals, the MRAs claim to be the people dealing with some actually valid concerns and tar them with the same brush.

I love the idea of him thinking he has something really important and political to say and it’s this completely unintelligible shit. Ha.
I must admit, I came really close to buying an article of clothing from AA but then I remembered their “no fat chicks” method of sizing, “fat chicks” being defined as anyone over a size 4. I was saved from myself by sizism!

The quote is actually from a study, I remember reading about it on my psychology course, but I don’t remember what it’s called. The point was something like – in all acts of ‘agression’, women and men are equally likely to initiate it, but the severity is vastly higher in men – i.e. women might slap their husbands in the face, but are unlikely to devote a full ten minutes to pounding them.

Now if we assume there are roughly equal numbers of lesbians and gay men around, it looks from that like domestic violence in lesbian relationships is a lot lower than in gay male relationships. Even if there are twice as many gay men as lesbians, it’s still lower.

[…] and it somehow made it’s way to the (possibly faux) ad. Besides the fact that Dov’s made-up statistic is horseshit it flies in the face of the hard facts that show that women often face violence at the hands of […]

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